The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) hosted a thrilling client breakfast meeting on April 26, 2018 at Holiday Inn Bulawayo on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF). The aim of the stakeholder engagement was to encourage and cultivate a culture of voluntary tax compliance amongst clients mainly from the southern region of the country.

Held under the theme “Our Tax for Sustainable Development”, the breakfast meeting became part of ZIMRA’s ongoing drive for a sustainable partnership with its key players and stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, Guest of Honour, acting Minister of Finance and Economic Development on the day, Honourable July Moyo who is the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, highlighted the critical role that tax payment plays in any political jurisdiction.

“Payment of tax enables the State to fulfil its obligations of guaranteeing social security, political security and creating an enabling environment for sustainable growth and business development,” said Honourable Moyo who also encouraged participants to take domestic resource mobilisation seriously, as it was the only way through which countries can have a sustainable revenue stream coming their way.

“Domestic Resource Mobilisation which in short can be referred to as the generation of resources from domestic resources and their allocation to economically and socially productive investments, has been singled out by the OECD as a panacea to Africa’s development,” said the Minister.

In her welcome remarks, recently appointed Commissioner General of ZIMRA – Ms Faith Mazani – singled out stakeholder partnerships as one area she will seriously focus on to ensure that ZIMRA is attune to the concerns of its stakeholders.

“We will collectively endeavour to build and sustain linkages and collaborations with all our stakeholders, like yourselves, to enhance synergy among players in revenue generation and trade facilitation in pursuit of the realisation of ZIMASSET goals,” said Ms Mazani.

Clients present at the meeting were concerned about ZIMRA system challenges and the long processes that they have to go through for them to submit their tax returns.

Ms Mazani assured clients that ZIMRA would continue to work towards reducing system down-time for all operations and that the Authority was also currently in the process of upgrading to the latest version ASYCUDA system for customs clearance purposes.